ORIGINAL PAPER Identification of coal seams suitability for carbon dioxide sequestration with enhanced coalbed methane recovery: a case study in South Sumatera Basin, Indonesia Edo Pratama 1 • Mohd Suhaili Ismail 1 • Syahrir Ridha 1 Received: 29 March 2017 / Accepted: 24 June 2017 Ó Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract Sequestering carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) with enhanced coalbed methane recovery (ECBM) is a promising clean coal technology in Indonesia, which can reduce CO 2 emissions and potentially lower-cost alterna- tive for fulfilling of future Indonesia’s gas demand. Coal seams in South Sumatera Basin, Indonesia, are well placed to take advantage of CO 2 sequestration based on eco- nomical and regulatory criteria. From technical criteria assessment, there are very limited studies undertaken in this area, especially for identification of coal seams suit- ability for CO 2 -ECBM in South Sumatera Basin. This study has therefore aimed to propose the technical criteria of coal seams suitability for CO 2 -ECBM recovery as well as predicting CO 2 storage capacity by developing a novel numerical model based on the characteristics of coal seams in South Sumatera Basin. The comparison of primary and CO 2 -ECBM recovery was analysed by performing pro- duction forecasting for 30 year of simulation. A sensitivity study was then conducted in order to examine the perfor- mance of CO 2 -ECBM under the influences of permeability, a determining factor in the viability of a CO 2 storage in coal seams. A simplified method for estimating CO 2 stor- age capacity in coal seams has been proposed which was validated with the novel numerical model through para- metric studies. From this study, one can screen the suit- able coal seams for CO 2 storage with enhanced coalbed methane recovery and can quickly quantify the CO 2 stor- age capacity in the coal seams with general available data. Keywords South Sumatera Basin Á CO 2 -ECBM Á CO 2 storage capacity Á Novel numerical model Introduction Indonesia has the highest carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions rate among the Southeast Asian region and the tenth largest CO 2 emitting country in the world with 611.4 MtCO 2 emissions in 2015 (BP 2016). Carbon capture storage (CCS) provides an opportunity for the government of Indonesia’s goal of improved energy supply and security, while also reducing CO 2 emissions. Studies regarding to CCS in Indonesia have been conducted since 2003, and the first CCS project was started in 2012 at the Gundih Gas Field in Central Java, Indonesia. According to LEMIGAS (2015), South Sumatera Basin is the third most suit- able sedimentary basins for CO 2 storage due to well- characterized reservoirs, favourable and well-known geo- logical structure, and there is potential to reuse existing infrastructure. The current studies regarding to CO 2 storage in South Sumatera are focusing in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Coal seams also have good potential for CO 2 storage while enhancing coal seam gas recovery. Coalbed methane (CBM) resource in Indonesia is identified of 453.3 TCF, and the biggest CBM resources are located in South Sumatera Basin which is about 183 TCF or 40.37% of total Indonesia’s CBM resource (Stevens and Hadiyanto 2004). With regard to the increase of gas demand significantly in Indonesia, CBM will be potentially lower-cost alternative for fulfilling of future Indonesia’s gas demand. South Sumatera has large pres- ence of the industrial and power sector which resulted in high-purity CO 2 content and large CO 2 volume per year (LEMIGAS 2015). The existing gas pipeline infrastructure & Edo Pratama edo.pratama1@yahoo.com 1 Faculty of Geosciences and Petroleum Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia 123 Clean Techn Environ Policy DOI 10.1007/s10098-017-1383-4